Objective: To study the sensitivity of pathogenic fungi from otorhinolaryngology to 5 antifungal agents of Ketoconazole (KE), Itraconazole(IT), Fluorocytosine(FC), Amphtericin B (AP) and Fluconazole(FL) by Etest method.
Method: Etest for determine MIC of 14 pathogenic fungi was performed according to the manufacturer's instructions. The Etest strip containing the 5 antifungal drugs were putted on medium with Candida albicans, A. flarus and A. fumigatus etc., respectively, to determine MIC of antifungal drugs.
Result: Candida albicans were sensitized to all the above 5 antifungal drugs, KE and IT were most sensitized. Seven fungi such as A. flavus, A fumigatus, A. oryzae etc were all sensitized to KE and IT. The MIC range of KE and IT against 15 strains of pathogenic fungi were < or = 0.008-2 mg/L and < or = 0.006-4 mg/L respectively. In 15 strains, 11 strains showed drug-resistant to FL, 8 strains to AP and FC, 4 strains to KE and 1 strains to IT respectively and MIC were all > 32 mg/L.
Conclusion: Etest MIC were in good agreement with macrobroth MIC. The use of Etest strips for antifungal susceptibility test is a new and promising method with advantage of easy to perform, exact results and satisfactory reproducibility. Etest is valuable on clinical practice.